Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Citations

ITEP's Citations Research Priorities

Education Week: How Do Schools Solve a Problem Like Property Taxes?

February 19, 2026

As tax season dawns, backlash to a nationwide surge in property-tax bills is spurring states to double down on proposals to diminish one of the main revenue sources for school districts. At least 10 states are pitching the end of one of schools’ chief revenue sources. Read more.

Today, President Biden’s visit to Racine, Wisconsin will underscore how his economic agenda is uplifting Wisconsin families by creating good-paying jobs, cutting costs, and building the middle class. Just last week, Trump spent his short time in Wisconsin lying about President Biden’s economic wins, because he knows that his only defense against President Biden’s successful record is to lie in a desperate attempt to hide how he failed Wisconsin families.

Video: ITEP’s Neva Butkus Discusses Wisconsin’s Tax Code on ABC News

January 29, 2024

"What this really comes down to is fairness," Neva Butkus, a state policy analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said. She contributed to "Who Pays?," the seventh edition of a periodic analysis offered by ITEP of tax policies in all 50 states.

Wisconsin Examiner: Tax Analyst Says Flat-Rate System Will Benefit Wealthy at the Expense of the Majority

January 26, 2023

The wealthiest Wisconsin residents already pay a smaller share of their incomes in state taxes than the rest of the population, and replacing the state’s current graduated-rate income tax structure with a flat tax would increase that disparity, a national tax expert says. Read more.

Yahoo News: Flat Income Taxes: Who Are the Biggest Winners and Losers?

January 25, 2023

From Kansas to Wisconsin to Nebraska, the conversation surrounding a flat tax has picked up as of late, with more state legislators pushing for as much. Read more.

Last month, an influential group of lobbyists released a proposal to raise Wisconsin’s sales tax to 8%, making it the highest state sales tax in the country, and eliminate the state individual income tax, Wisconsin’s biggest source of revenue. The plan would result in the largest tax cuts going to white households, with households of color […]

Exposed: Bradley and Koch Cash Fuels Push to Eliminate Wisconsin Income Tax

January 10, 2022

In addition, “sales taxes inevitably take a larger share of income from low- and middle-income families than from rich families because sales taxes are levied at a flat rate and spending as a share of income falls as income rises,” according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more

Shutting low-income families out of the tax cut will further skew Wisconsin’s tax system, which already requires people with low incomes to pay a higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes than people with much higher earnings. The lowest 20% of Wisconsin households by income, in which households earn less than $22,000 […]

Urban Milwaukee: Labor Leaders Slam Trump for Betraying Working People

July 14, 2020

By Democratic Party of Wisconsin The tax law Trump pushed through was a boon for large corporations, including those in Wisconsin like Kimberly Clark, that used the handout to shutter their facilities, issue stock buybacks, and lay off workers instead of creating jobs and increasing wages. Read more

The Capital Times: Labor Report Chronicles Severe Decline of Unions in Wisconsin

August 31, 2019

On the gap between rich and poor, the report cites an Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analysis that shows that the top 1% of Wisconsin earners pay and average of 7.7% of their income in state and local taxes. Nearly all other families pay more than 10 percent, which continually widens the gap. The […]

Urban Milwaukee: Republicans Discover the Middle Class

February 14, 2019

An analysis of all the tax breaks in Wisconsin from 2011 through 2016 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found the average tax reduction was $10,015 for the top 1 percent of taxpayers, and $1,806 for the next 4 percent of taxpayers versus $379 for the middle 20 percent of taxpayers and just $175 for the bottom 20 percent of taxpayers.

Wisconsin residents with the lowest incomes pay about a third more of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest residents, according to new figures from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The poorest 20% of Wisconsin residents—a group with an average income of $14,700—pays 10.1 cents out of every $1 of their income in state and local taxes on average. In comparison, the richest residents of Wisconsin, who have an average income of $1.2 million, pay just 7.7 cents out of every $1 in income in state and local taxes.

Urban Milwaukee: What’s Wrong with Illinois?

May 30, 2018

Although Illinois is widely viewed as a blue state because of its recent record of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, from a “who pays” angle it looks much more like a red state, collecting a much higher proportion of taxes from low earners than high earners. The next chart, based on data developed by the Institute […]

Washington Post: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is sending 671,000 families an election-year check

May 3, 2018

Tax experts said the only similar recent tax break that came to mind was in 2014, when New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) pushed through a more targeted, three-year tax package aimed at middle-class families ahead of his reelection bid, according to Meg Wiehe, a tax expert at the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]

Select state coverage of ITEP’s analyses of Republican tax Plans

January 1, 2018

Burlington County Times: Will Phil Murphy raise NJ’s taxes (and 4 other political questions for .. Kaplan Herald: This chart exhibits how the GOP tax plan will hit your pockets Wiscnews: Tax cuts increase inequity Patch.com: MacArthur Touts Tax Reform; Will It Help NJ As Much As He Says? NJ.com: Long lines spring up as […]

According to a new report from the Wisconsin Budget Project, passing the Dream Act and establishing a pathway to citizenship for immigrant youth would help Wisconsin farms and communities by: Expanding Wisconsin’s economy by up to $600 million a year by improving the access that immigrants have to educational and economic opportunity; Increasing state and […]

There are 10,000 young immigrants potentially eligible for DACA who call Wisconsin home. They currently contribute a total of $16 million to local and state taxes annually through sales and excise taxes, property taxes, and income tax. Read more here

Politifact: Paul Ryan’s partially accurate claim that House tax bill saves typical Wisconsin household $2,000

December 8, 2017

The $2,081 savings figure is correct, according to experts at four think tanks we contacted: Amir El-Sibaie, an analyst at the Tax Foundation; Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center senior fellow Frank Sammartino; and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy deputy […]

Wisconsin Public Radio: Paul Ryan Defends Tax Proposal Health Insurance Subsidy Cut

October 17, 2017

A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington DC found about 60 percent of the proposed tax cuts would benefit the top 1 percent of income earners in Wisconsin. Ryan said Monday he hadn’t seen that report, but maintained his stance that cutting taxes on businesses would help middle-income people by creating more jobs. […]

The tax plan being advanced by President Trump and Republican members of Congress would mostly benefit the extremely rich, despite initial claims by proponents that it would be targeted at members of the middle class...Using data from an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, we have prepared six charts that show how the Trump-GOP tax framework would affect Wisconsin taxpayers:

New York Times: Questions Emerge Over What Wisconsin Must Give for Foxconn Plant

August 11, 2017

Mr. Walker, who has made promises of job creation a centerpiece of his two terms in office, has pushed lawmakers to move quickly in approving the bill, which would offer Foxconn, a producer of flat-panel display screens for televisions and other consumer electronics, close to $3 billion in state tax credits. The subsidies for the […]

The New York Times: Wisconsin’s Lavish Lure for Foxconn: $3 Billion in Tax Subsidies

July 28, 2017

Big companies like Foxconn possess leverage to extract concessions from state governments that smaller firms cannot, said Carl Davis, research director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. “This is not a comprehensive strategy for economic development,” he said. “If Wisconsin were going to offer this kind of subsidy for every […]

The Atlantic: How Much is Wisconsin Paying for a Taiwanese Manufacturer’s Jobs

July 28, 2017

Plus, states rarely seem to consider whether the money they lavish on corporations might be better spent elsewhere—on public goods like bridges, say, or educational initiatives for their work forces. “If offering more tax incentives requires spending less on public education, congestion-relieving infrastructure projects, workforce development, police and fire protection, or high technology initiatives at […]

Since 2011, Wisconsin state lawmakers have made it a high priority to cut taxes, particularly personal income and property taxes. The tax cuts they have passed have disproportionately gone to Wisconsin residents with the highest incomes. Middle-class residents received less than the wealthy, and residents with low incomes received the smallest tax cut. Read more […]

Politifact: Richest 1 Percent Pay Lowest Rate of State and Local Taxes in Wisconsin?

June 2, 2017

McCabe, who says he is not a member of any political party, cited a 50-state analysis of state and local taxes published in January 2015 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research organization based in Washington, D.C. Experts told us it is the only recent report of its kind on state […]